The present invention relates to providing media descriptions of objects on the internet and more particularly, to modifying those descriptions as they are presented to the user based on a user""s reaction to the descriptions.
The internet is capable of presenting rich media presentations, containing still images, animated images, video images and audio. One problem with these presentations, is the need to transmit large blocks of code and data to the client. This is a serious impediment for presenting products to electronic commerce customers who are typically connected over low-bandwidth dial-up inks. They cannot be expected to pre-load code and data or wait for very long before their shopping experiences commence. This problem is addressed in the above referenced copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/100,418, entitled xe2x80x9cProgressive Interleaved Delivery of Interactive Descriptions and Renderers for Electronic Publishing of Merchandisexe2x80x9d filed on Jun. 20, 1988. This copending application is hereby incorporated by reference.
A second problem concerns optimized delivery of various rich media to easily and effectively address the right amount of information about the merchandise to each user. Each user has different interests, needs and expectations. The presentations must be able to attract and maintain the attention of users with a wide variety of interests and needs, different personalities and varying attention spans. Gathering and presenting information for these and other purposes needed by the user to express his or her selection preferences is difficult with presently available approaches.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for providing rich media experiences.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new method and apparatus to provide rich data experiences tailored to the individual user.
It is a further object of the invention to provide to the user improved selection capability for navigation in rich media.
In accordance with the present invention, network presentations to be rendered at the user""s terminal are programmed to exploit the advantages of rich media to expand user""s ability to effectively provide information about selection preferences back on the network to the transmitting website as the presentation proceeds. In response to interrogation by a user for goods of services, the system presents a hypermedia presentation that starts out with delivery and presentation of simple thumbnail descriptions of the available goods and services, and proceeds in steps through delivery and presentation of more complex descriptions. The presentations are arranged in segments and permit multiple modes of operation. Each mode has a different set of attributes that permit progress through the presentation in a different manner. When a user first enters a website, he is placed in navigation mode which enables him to browse the website by moving from category to category of goods, having an initial look at the offerings of each category. The user can then move on to the inspection and/or transaction modes. In the inspection mode, the user can examine in more detail the various aspects of the goods he is interested in changing to a more detailed explanation, zoom in on various portions of the goods and obtain related information. When the user enters the transaction mode, he is apparently ready to purchase the goods and is given appropriate options for this purpose such as obtaining a quote, ask for human assistance, and trigger a transaction.
As the user navigates through the presentation in one or more of its modes of operation, his selection process is monitored not only for his overt acts concerning selected goods and services, but also for factors revealed by the user""s selection process. Among factors that are analyzed are the time the user spends with various aspects of the presentation; the manner the user prefers to interact with the media (i.e., by mouse, voice or keyboard); and the number of times the user returns to a particular subject. In this way, the system accumulates information about the user and his preference and modifies the presentation on the fly to accommodate them. For instance, if the product to be sold is a vehicle, the system would quickly determine what type of vehicle the user was interested in, the features that he considered important in the car and the desired price range. The presentation would then be modified to emphasize vehicles of the preferred type within the price range the user showed interest in. The presentation would emphasize features the user has shown interest in by expanding the presentation of the features which the user showed interest in. Furthermore, the presentation is changed based on the personality of the user. If the data indicates the user is impatient or has short attention span, the presentation is made short and to the point. If the user is interested in going into details, the presentation is extended to include factors not normality conveyed in the usual presentation. If the user responds to audio, the verbal presentation is emphasized. If he has shown a preference for animation, video segments will be bypassed. Once the user""s interests have been determined, they are presented on a transaction page offering options that can be added to the decided on goods.